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James Cobb Hutto is charged with capital murder in the death of Ethel Winstead Simpson, who was reported missing Sept. 13, 2010, after she was last seen with convicted sex offender Hutto. Her body was found a few days later on a hog farm near Edwards.

Witnesses testified Monday about seeing Hutto and Simpson together.

Investigators said Simpson met Hutto while working out at the Baptist Healthplex in Clinton. She gave Hutto a ride to a Clinton motel and they were seen later that day entering and leaving a casino in Vicksburg, police said.

Hutto was arrested in Alabama the day Simpson's body was found and was charged with robbing and stabbing a man in Lee County, Ala., authorities said. Hutto was driving Simpson's 2002 Mercedes at the time of his arrest, police said.

The jury was selected in Oxford last week. Attorneys said it would have been difficult to find jurors in Hinds County who had no knowledge of the case.

The trial began late Monday morning in Hinds County Circuit Court in Jackson and could last a week or longer, court officials said.